Learning and working at old age receives increasing attention in the policy and research community. Various research fields, such as quantitative economic and demographic forecasts, scenario methods, medical research on cognitive decline, market observations, and qualitative biographical surveys on working and learning behaviour, analyse this issue, but integrated approaches that link insights from different disciplines are absent. Most studies focus on ageing workers that are in the last phase of their career preceding retirement and are mainly guided by policy priorities and measures, often neglecting contextual factors that impact on the individual ability and motivation to remain employed and employable at old age. Although emerging concepts such as employability, lifelong guidance and preserving the human capital treasure of older workers enable a better understanding of issues related to ageing and work, they also lead to more confusion within this discussion. Bearing in mind the heterogeneity of this field of research, the main questions and objectives of the symposium will be: 1) whether and how the different approaches and methodologies can support an integrative understanding of the interrelation between ageing, learning and working; and 2) how the different approaches and methodologies cope with ongoing developments (demographic change, changing labour market demands, image of age and older individuals). The issue of working at old age is often approached mechanically, as if only sufficient employment and coherent management strategies are necessary conditions to retain older workers in the labour market. However, this view is incorrect and misleading. In fact employability at old age is closely related to how we understand the role of and interconnections between (lifelong) learning, working and ageing. Moreover, working and learning at old age is strongly linked to aspects of motivation, volition, curiosity, learning-conducive activities and flexible working conditions. Different views exist on how to retain older workers in the labour market and how to analyse older individuals’ learning and working attitudes and behaviour. Therefore, the following two questions will be raised: - How can we design an analytical framework that is necessary to understand the interaction of actors (individuals, companies, policy makers etc.) and levels of action (micro, meso, macro)? - How can existing medical, psychological, economic, political and sociological approaches be linked with educational theories and empirical findings on working, learning and ageing?

The methodological framework will be mainly analytical, influenced by empirical studies of working and learning practices in different countries. First, the symposium will bring together interdisciplinary perspectives focusing on various aspects of learning and ageing and providing an overall assessment of an emerging field of research relevant at national and European levels. It will also provide an analysis of the meaning of working and learning at political, institutional, organisational and individual levels. Finally, the event will establish a framework for a broader analysis of ageing as a social phenomenon which combines aspects of learning, working and living. An important common question to be discussed and addressed is the role of employing organisations to support individual learning and stimulate positive attitudes towards work. Another important issue is the relation between theoretical and conceptual approaches to organisational and political practices of integrating or excluding older workers from working life.

The symposium will encompass theoretical and empirical contributions that address ageing and work from educational, psychological, sociological and socio-economic research perspectives. It will present an in-depth examination and analysis of learning and working processes and behaviour at old age, including aspects of motivation, employability, experience, expertise and individual and human resource development. The contributions address the following topics: - the relationship between age and work performance; - insights from adult learning and andragogy theories relevant to ageing and work - approaches that enable learning conducive and flexible work environments and promote individual employability - individual factors enabling longer working lives.